I spent seven days away from the boys in California at a research conference. I enjoyed all the intellectually stimulating conference sessions and presenting my own work to get feedback on it, an essential part of research life. I squeezed in a little time for diving on Catalina Island, just a short ferry ride off the California coast. I had hoped to swim with sea lions, but it turns out I didn't go to the right island for that. Nonetheless, it was spectacular diving. And hilariously, it was the coldest water I've ever been diving in, registering a nippy 57 degrees on my dive computer. Of course, that's what the wetsuit is for, so I was comfy. You can view the album of all my pictures.
Flying home from LAX I had a connection in Cincinnati. We were delayed leaving by about 45 minutes, and of course it's common for a 45 minute delay to turn into a 4 hour delay, so I was a little emotional already and second-guessing my choice to fly through Cincinnati to avoid the very hot taxiing conditions and long runway wait times that I knew I would have faced in Atlanta. By the time our flight took off, I was so relieved, and I was so eager to get home and hug Rowan, that I actually cried for a good part of the second flight! The flight attendant took pity on me and tried to help out with a little comedy routine, which I'll admit was certainly...uh...distracting. ;-) So was the 95 degree heat I came home to! Youch.
